MARCH 2003
Complicated girls
"Have the Bangles really been around that long?" I was asked the other day when I said I was going to see them. Well, yes and no. They broke up in 1989 but got back together again in 2000 or so, hence there being 19 years between the first album and the fourth. As for the gig, as I had always suspected, the Bangles are really, really good live (or as the singer from the support band put it more bluntly, "they fucking rock"). The show would have been even better if I'd got my booty in gear when I meant to and and set off earlier. Then I would have got right to the front instead of being stuck behind a bunch of people (tall people, naturally, because an immutable law of concert-going is that only tall people stand in front of me). The stage is quite low at the Shepherd's Bush Empire and Susanna Hoffs in particular is tiny.
I was slightly surprised that they didn't do any of the quieter stuff at all - it was all full-on rock'n'roll, at which they excel - the only exception being the very last song which was "Eternal Flame". So none of the quieter more reflective stuff on the new album, but all the rockers, plus a decent selection from the other three albums. I've always hated "Eternal Flame" because it was so sappy and really not at all what they were about, but there's a simple acoustic version on the current single which I really like and they did it that way. They opened with "Hazy Shade Of Winter" (their Simon & Garfunkel cover) which I wasn't expecting; bands always like to start with something new and I was sure they were going to open with "Tear Off Your Own Head" as well because it's the first track on the new album and basically the title track and it's really loud and raw. So, all in all, very satisfying indeed.
March 26, 2003
That jingle-jangle thing
Speaking of eBay, it's also provided me with the chance to acquire the guitar of my dreams, almost. The objectification of electric guitars is not for everyone, I concede, especially if you don't play, but still, guitars are beautiful instruments. I've always played and desired Fender guitars and basses, in particular Stratocasters and Telecasters. In recent years I've also drooled after Rickenbacker guitars, especially the 620 model and most especially of all, the 12-string version, the 620/12. Rickenbacker 12-string electric guitars have a particularly distinctive and famous sound (what Roger McGuinn called "that jingle-jangle thing"), made famous of course in the mid-1960s by the Byrds. McGuinn played one, a 360/12, on many of the Byrds' most celebrated records, such as "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)".
Anyway, I love the Rickenbacker sound. Rickenbacker guitars are played by many of my favourite musicians, such as Tom Petty, Mary Chapin Carpenter, the Bangles, R.E.M., to name but a few. Pete Townshend's a Ricky man, too. He's played a 330 since the earliest days of The Who. So when a 620, the model played by Tom Petty and Mary Chapin Carpenter, came up on eBay and a mint one in a discontinued custom colour at that, I decided it was time to have one. And here it is:
March 20, 2003
The best things about the Internet
You know what I like best about the Internet? The possibilities it provides for communcation with complete strangers and the way it shrinks huge distances. Best of all it provides ways of getting information which would have been inconceivable only a few short years ago. For example, I was idly searching on eBay the other day for stuff by one of my all-time favourite bands, the Rainmakers, when I came across some CDs I didn't have that looked very interesting, but of dubious origin. So instead of spending ages wondering whether they might be worth buying, I e-mailed Pat Tomek, the Rainmakers' drummer and asked him. He mailed me right back and told me one was definitely a bootleg, two appeared to be copies burned to CD from old vinyl albums and one was compilation made up from various bootlegged recording sessions and an promo CD. He also mentioned that he wasn't at all sure that even he had some of the stuff included. Now that's the power of the Internet in action - that sort of thing would never have been possible until very recently.
March 20, 2003
It's a doll revolution
So I'm off to London tonight to see the Bangles, which I'm childishly excited about. I know they're not exactly cool (though I'm pleased to see that the Guardian thinks otherwise), not that that's anything I'm bothered about. I love the Bangles. I've liked them since I first heard them 17 years ago and I never got to see them live because I think they only came here once during that time and they didn't play in Newcastle where I was at the time.
I've always said they were much better than a bit of fluff like "Walk Like An Egyptian" might suggest, as their first album, All Over The Place, shows; at heart they are a garage rock band with great harmonies, which the cracking new album Doll Revolution shows rather well. They still do ballads, but I think the essence of the Bangles is much more in songs like "Ride The Ride" "Single By Choice", Stealing Rosemary", "Mixed Messages" and "Tear Off Your Own Head (it's a doll revolution)".
